January 26, 2009

Going to the Library on the Day Obama Became President

For the inauguration ceremony, our staff at Levenger headquarters here in Delray Beach, Florida, gathered in a conference room. The live coverage was projected onto a screen we normally use for business presentations. Lori and Janet, our executive assistant, brought in two trays of cookies with dozens of little American flags, and were met with lighthearted laughter and applause. People snapped up the flags to wave or just hold. We sat or stood, mostly in silence, watching the ceremony and listening to Obama’s inaugural address. As in so many other conference rooms and family rooms across the country, our staff clapped and sighed and wiped their eyes. Someone handed me a tissue.

I felt proud of our country for its peaceful transition of power, and proud of the powerful symbolism that Obama represents for America and the world.

After work, I went to my regular weekly tutoring session at the Village Academy, not far from our headquarters. The Academy is a public school whose mission is to support its surrounding community of mainly lower-income families. The Academy offers classes for both youngsters and their parents, many of whom have recently immigrated to America with their children.

In the evening, while their children attend after-school programs, those parents who can spare the hours from their jobs come in to work on their English in free classes and one-on-one tutoring. On this night, a group of nine parents—all recent immigrants—traveled by bus the few miles to Delray’s downtown public library for a tour. They were escorted by staff members of the Palm Beach Literacy Coalition and Americorps.

The new immigrants, men and women, were from four countries: five from Haiti, two from Nicaragua, one from Mexico and one from El Salvador. They sat on a beautiful long wooden bench with stainless steel appointments, in the lofty lobby with bamboo trees, slate walls and a waterfall nearby, while Norma Kane, the library’s community relations assistant, gave a bit of history.

She explained that the library began in 1913 and was established by the Ladies Auxiliary on the second floor of the old town hall. She didn’t mention that for its first decades, blacks would not have been welcome. Nor was this the only library that had such a policy; it was prevalent in parts of our country as recently as the 1960s.

As one former mayor of Delray told me, any blacks who ventured at night from West Atlantic Avenue to East Atlantic Avenue (the demarcation street between black and white Delray) would have been escorted back by city police. The new library, which was built in 2004, now presides majestically at 100 West Atlantic Avenue in, as Norma says, “the center of things.”

Norma explained to her guests that all the books, audiobooks, DVDs and CDs were free to check out, and that all they needed to do to get their own library card was to show some sort of photo ID—or even a bill with their name and address. The library is proudly unconcerned with anyone’s antecedents or status—east or west address.

After Norma’s talk, library volunteers divided the visitors into two smaller groups to tour the library. They went to the quiet study rooms, saw the dozens of free Internet terminals (all busy, as usual), greeted the reference librarians, saw the foreign-language sections and explored the children’s library, where they could bring their children for story hours.

Afterwards, the new immigrants lined up to receive their library cards before boarding the bus to return to their children.

The following morning, as I sat at the kitchen table and read the transcription of President Obama’s Inaugural Address in my newspaper, I took my pen and underlined this sentence:

The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our Gross Domestic Product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart—not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

Because of our country’s belief in a common good, our lovely Delray Beach Library is able to extend the opportunities that literacy brings to every willing heart.

It has been a good week. I am proud of this small community and this big country called America.

How about you, dear reader? I’d like to hear your thoughts about our new chapter. Just click on the Comments link below. (If you’re reading this as an email, click here and you’ll connect to Comments).

Comments

Living in the liberal Northeast, I can't help but feel that this new chapter -- volume, really -- could not come soon enough. Life isn't going to change overnight, but I think the nation has turned a corner in a big way. Obama even had the audacity (?) to say, recently, that he wouldn't be a perfect president. Humanity at last.

Having grown up in the North (Pittsburgh), I'd never thought about libraries' being segregated. How limiting in so many ways. Delray Beach's evolution is interesting, the work you do with new immigrants, so important. The bottom line can take many forms.

Thank you sooo much for this note about your experience Tuesday. Living in the Northwest, as I do, we get a skewed view of what goes on "out in Florida." It is wonderful to hear a personal experience from someone I admire. An experience that celebrates our commonality of spirit. I too am excited about the possibilities that await us, as we move forward with a view toward what is best for all of us, not just a few of us.
Best regards to you and your company!

Dear Steve: I have long been a great fan of your products. I have just become a great fan of YOU! As an academic who often feels as though drowning in words, it has become rare that an essay truly sparks my interest and evokes emotion. Thank you for this gift.

FYI, I watched the inauguration nestled in the most comfortable chair on the planet, my Adams Reader.

My oldest daughter, a recent college graduate, who is lving and working in NVA, left at 4am with a friend inauguration morning. Moriah, my daughter, ended up seated next to an elderly black woman who was traveling North with her church for the inauguration. She told Moriah how she had had to use a separate drinking fountain as a child and how she forgave the dividing people and was able to move forward in her life without bitterness. Praise be to God!

Although a foreigner but admirer and lover of the U.S.A i feel confident that President Obama and his excellent team will within time master the financial tide.Mr Obama is the right man at the right moment.God bless him and America

I have been interested in how the rest of the world felt about our choice of Obama. A thought: About 4 to 5 hundred years ago, English-Dutch-French-White People ruled the world via trade/colonization/business. The rest of the world was made up of brown,yellow,red,and black peoples. Only an American black president could have been such a jolt to the rest of the world.This election is proof that God has his hand on this country. If Al Gore had been given his victory based on his winning the popular vote---we would probably not have had an Obama. Also, after George Bush...anything really was possible.

The accomplishments of our nation are incredible. Our 'can do' attitude is often the impetus for improvement and innovation, yet our most important resource suffers continued and significant neglect. That resource, our children, are often taught by poorly equipped and underpaid teachers who must turn to their own pocketbooks to pay for materials. We need more folks like you. Hopefully, some day this nation will 'get it': our children deserve teachers who are paid Wall Street salaries. While money doesn't solve all, it certainly would make teaching more attractive to those who want to teach but can't afford to teach.

I wept all day during the ceremonies just anticipating the hopefulness of our country being fulfilled in the years ahead with our new administration. Yet, it is such an abomination to hear of the graft and downright criminal activities of chief executive officers who somehow get away with their CRIMES, though we as individuals cannot overly concern ourselves with what we can do: nothing. Fifty million dollars for an airplane can surely go a very long way in the educational system instead. Our perspective of right and wrong needs to be evaluated and deal with those who should be punished. Health care and social security and all of the other issues that have not been addressed by government in the best interest of the people must now be given corrected effort. I now have a better image of the America that I have so long (eight plus years) not seen from the top down. I am so encouraged by the rights of all Americans being recognized as equal. Onward and upward.

I have taken your advice in how to read more this year and acquired an e-reader; though somewhat difficult to upload, it has great potential. Free books can be downloaded from the library and read at my leisure, without making the trip a few blocks to the excellent Cape Coral library.

I was filled with hope that many will take his words to heart and make them their own. We need to think of the common good for a change versus our own selfish interests.

I took my elderly 86-year-old mom to the pain medical specialist the other day. On the questionnaire were at least 10 questions that asked, "were you able to do volunteer work." These questions helped to measure Mom's ability to be mobile. So maybe as we age we all ought to consider volunteering, as you've done, as a means to lengthen and better our own lives.

I sat, along with multitudes of fellow Americans watching the Inauguration. I reflected on how peaceful and joyful our change of power was and how many other countries were trying to change power at the end of a gun.
From seeing a "colored" sign over a drinking fountain at McClellands as a little girl to seeing a Black man as our President as an aging American has been amazing. I told my mother then that the idea of separate fountains was "just silly" ( I was only 6) . I am glad the rest of the country finally saw it too.